LS 420 - Degraded Mode

[bloP]

Hello all,

I'm working with an LS 420 in degraded mode. I can still access all data, but the drive just performs terribly.

I first attempted to discover information through the web interface. I can get to the general settings page, but after successfully logging in for the admin page, nothing loads. I confirmed that I wasn't entering the wrong password by intentionally entering the wrong password. When I did, I received a message that my login failed. When I enter the correct password, I receive no such message. Instead, the admin page attempts to load, but never fully does. I've tried in both Chrome and IE (Edge).

I actually have access to a second identical LS 420 unit, so I installed the drives in the second unit and tried to access the admin page. It failed to load in the second unit as well. The admin page for this unit definitely loads with its actual drives installed.

I next pulled both hard drives from their caddies and place them in a docking station to see if one performed more poorly. I purchased UFS Explorer Standard so that I could browse the XFS file system. I was able to access all data on both drives, and, sure enough, one of the hard drives performs far worse than the other. So at this point, I decided I would simply replace that hard drive.

I bought a Western Digital WD30EFRX. This drive is listed as a supported drive on the LS 420 page. I replaced the faulty drive with the new drive and turned the LS 420 on. The unit failed to boot. Instead, the LED blinked red. I think it was the function LED (not the power LED). I don't remember exactly how many times it blinked. Moreover, since the unit failed to boot, I could not access the setting page, as it did not appear in NAS Navigator.

I figured that perhaps this was a file system issue, so I used an external cloner to clone the LS 420 drive to the new WD drive. After successful cloning (according to the LED on the external cloner), I placed the drive in the LS 420 and tried again. And again, the LED blinked red. I payed more attention this time-- it is definitely the Function LED. It blinks 7 times quickly, so that would be error code 07. Unfortunately, I cannot find code descriptions for the function LED. The manual includes descriptions for the power LED only. Again, since it fails to boot, it does not appear in NAS Navigator, so I have no way of accessing the settings/admin pages.

I confirmed that the clone didn't jack up my initial LS 420 drive by installing both initial LS 420 drives again. With both initial drives installed, the LS 420 boots just fine, but is once again in degraded mode, and again, the admin page does not load.

In this process, I've already purchased two external cloners/docks. The first worked great as a docking station, and I could access my files with UFS, but the clone function did not work. And cloning software could only see one drive at a time from the docking station. So I returned that station and bought a Sabrent. My Windows drives mount just fine with the Sabrent, but the XFS Buffalo drives do not appear in UFS. Still, the external cloning function (appears) to have worked. The LED flashed as it should, indicating active cloning and eventually successful completion, and I could hear both hard drives grinding away.   

I'm not sure how to proceed. Anyone have any similar experiences? Am I missing something obvious? Did I do something obviously wrong? It seems like this should be a simple process. But with not having free time and already having to hit Fry's twice for docking stations/cloners (which I wanted an excuse to buy anyway), this is really dragging out. And I just want to finish ASAP.

Advice? Thanks in advance!

[Texturtle]

Try booting with only the good drive in the LinkStation and see if you can access the GUI. If so, then completely erase the new drive using this procedure:

http://buffalotech.com/support-and-downloads/faqs/cleaning-a-disk-in-windows-7-using-diskpartexe

Once that's done, follow these steps to replace the drive:

http://buffalotech.com/support-and-downloads/faqs/replacing-a-failed-drive-on-a-buffalo-linkstation

[bloP]

Hello Texturtle. Thanks for the response!

Unfortunately, booting the LS420 with just one drive doesn't help. I've tried booting with the "good" drive in both the first and second hdd slot. In both cases, the unit fails to boot, and the function LED blinks red 7 times (code 07). I've tried booting with the "bad" drive in both the first and second slots, and in both cases, the unit boots, the power LED blinks 1 long once and short 6 times (code 16: missing hdd). The settings page loads, but the admin page fails to load. Note, this in the LS420 unit that displays the admin page when it's actual hdds are installed. Note also that I use quotes for "good" and "bad" because those are just my guesses based on access times, since the admin page won't load.

Note, in swapping drives back and forth in multiple combinations, it appears that the unit will boot into degraded mode with the cloned Western Digital WD30EFRX in slot 1 and the "bad" drive in slot 2. And this makes, as the cloned WD drive was cloned from the "good" drive. Of course, the problem is that, in degraded mode, I cannot access the Admin page to rebuild the array-- not that I'd even want to with the bad drive still in. I cloned the drive initially only because the LS420 failed to boot with the Western Digital WD30EFRX out of the box.

At this point, I think I'll try two more things:

1. I'll completely wipe the Western Digital WD30EFRX drive and try it in both slots with the "good" drive in the opposite slot just to double check if I can get that to work. If that fails, then I will:

2. Ensure all data are backed on my desktop, buy a second Western Digital WD30EFRX, ensure both are completely wiped, and then try to move forward with two identical, brand new drives. I can load my data back onto the array once it's rebuilt.

Unless anyone has a better suggestion?

Is this problem at all common? Am I just lucky here? Did I fundamentally screw something up?

Thanks!

[bloP]

As a followup thought, I think I'll skip step #1. Given that I can't access the admin page for information on which drive is faulty, and given that I don't have the expertise to thoroughly check XFS system discs, I'll probably just back both hdds on my desktop and then start with two fresh hdds, just to ensure the potentially faulty disc is removed. I really would hate to go through rebuilding an array just to later find that my access-time-disc-health-proxy wasn't accurate, and I actually rebuilt the array with the bad disc.

[bloP]

So I bought a second WD NAS drive. Identical model. I cleaned the first using Diskpart. I put both in the LS 420. Turned it on.

Function light blinks red, fast, seven times. Again, this would be error code 07, but, again, there are no codes for the function LED in the LS 420 manual. And of course, it doesn't show up on NAS Navigator.

Reading online, it almost sounds like Buffalo NAS boxes often save their OS on the HDDs. Is this true of the LS 420? If so, I wonder if my problems could be due  to an disk failure that impacted the OS, such that neither drive contains the full OS. This could potentially explain why I can't load the admin page or install a new disk. If  that's what happened, I should be able to clone my drives from my other NAS box, and then this one should be up and running. So I'm going to try that.

[davo]

You need the TFTP image to reinstall the OS onto the HDDs.

[bloP]

You need the TFTP image to reinstall the OS onto the HDDs.

Thanks Davo.

I was finally able to track down the TFTP image for the LS420, but I'd already just cloned my hard drives from my other LS420. And that effectively provided a clean image. I then deleted the folders and added the data from the LS420 I was trying to fix. So it all worked out in the end.

That said, I'm incredibly disappointed that this process was so convoluted, and I'm just in a bit of disbelief that the LS420 OS is actually stored (or at least dependent) on the RAID array. I was running a redundant RAID because I anticipated hard drive failure. I wanted a storage solution that would reduce risk of file loss and time of recovery upon hard drive failure. In this case, it's clear now that the hard drive failure-- which was by no means catastrophic-- took out part of the LS420 OS. While I didn't lose any files, the loss of the OS made this process incredibly time consuming, as the portion of the OS providing array rebuilding was corrupted due to hard drive failure.

It's also frustrating that none of this information is noted in the manual. The manual doesn't even indicate the function LED can flash an error code, and there's no mention of the OS being somehow stored or dependent on the hard drives, or of the TFTP image at all. Had I at least known that hdd failure could have taken out part of the OS going in, it would have likely changed my trouble shooting approach. Honestly, I never even considered that the very drives a redundant RAID is used to protect would be where anything RAID OS-related would be stored.